NewEnergyNews: TODAY’S STUDY: VOTERS WANT NEW ENERGY/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Monday, November 21, 2011

    TODAY’S STUDY: VOTERS WANT NEW ENERGY

    Energy and the 2012 Election: No Voter Constituency Found for Washington’s Focus on Fossil Fuels & Nuclear Power
    November 3, 2011 (ORC International/Civil Society Institute)

    Executive Summary

    Promotion of oil, coal and natural gas as energy sources. Loan guarantees and other subsidies for nuclear power and fossil fuels. Slashing federal support for wind and solar power. Attacking clean energy as bad for the economy. Climate science denial. Touting a “clean energy standard” that includes coal and nuclear. -- Are those in Congress and the White House who are (to varying degrees) embracing the agendas of coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries in sync … or out of touch … with the mainstream of America?

    …A new survey of 1,049 Americans conducted October 21-24, 2011 by ORC International for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) finds that most Americans – including an often large share of Tea Party supporters – are not on the same page as many in Congress and at the White House when it comes to energy issues:

    click to enlarge

    •Few Americans want Washington to adopt a laissez faire approach to energy issues. Only about one in four Americans (27 percent) – including 47 percent of Republicans, 27 percent of Independents, 11 percent of Democrats and a surprisingly small 57 percent of Tea Party supporters -- say “Congress and the President should stay out of the energy markets and let private enterprise have a free hand in picking energy sources and setting prices.”

    •If Washington had to choose between fossil fuel/nuclear subsidies and wind/solar subsidies, “clean energy” aid would get support from three times more Americans than fossil fuel/nuclear energy subsidies. Just over one in 10 American adults (13 percent) – including 20 percent of Republicans, 9 percent of Independents, 10 percent of Democrats, and only 24 percent of Tea Party supporters – are in favor of concentrating federal energy subsidies on the coal, nuclear power and natural gas industries. When it comes to focusing federal subsidies on wind and solar, 38 percent of all Americans are supportive -– about three times the support level for fossil fuel/nuclear subsidies. Only about one in 10 Americans (13 percent) – including just 26 percent of Tea Party supporters -- believes that “no energy source should receive federal subsidies.”

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    •Fossil fuel subsidies are opposed by Americans on a bipartisan basis. Six in 10 Americans – including 59 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of Independents, 59 percent of Democrats, and 59 percent of Tea Party members -- oppose “federal subsidies for oil and gas, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuel companies.”

    •Nuclear reactor loan guarantees are opposed by Americans on a bipartisan basis. More than two out of three Americans (67 percent) – including 65 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Independents, 68 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Tea Party backers – disagree that “taxpayers and ratepayers should provide taxpayer backed loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power reactors in the United States through proposed tens of billions in federal loan guarantees for new reactors.”

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    •Bad news for a “clean energy standard” reliant on nuclear power: Most Americans want the U.S. to shift federal loan guarantee support from nuclear power to wind and solar energy. About seven in 10 Americans (71 percent) – including 55 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Independents, 84 percent of Democrats, and almost half (47 percent) of Tea Party backers -- strongly or somewhat support “a shift of federal loan-guarantee support for energy away from nuclear reactors and towards clean renewable energy such as wind and solar.”

    •Americans do not see more clean energy as a roadblock to economic recovery. More than two thirds of Americans (69 percent) – including 59 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of Independents, 78 percent of Democrats and a plurality of Tea Party supporters (48 percent) – think it would be a “bad idea” for the U.S. “ to ‘put on hold’ progress towards cleaner energy sources during the current economic difficulty.”

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    •Excessive corporate influence may explain the gap between where some in Washington are on energy policy … and where mainstream America is. More than seven in 10 Americans (72 percent) – including 62 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of Independents, 83 percent of Democrats, and over half of Tea Party supporters (54 percent) -- think that “America’s oil, coal and natural gas companies have a disproportionate influence on Congress and the White House when it comes to making national energy policy.”

    •A strong majority of Americans want the U.S. to make the investments needed to be a clean energy leader on a global basis. More than three in four Americans (77 percent) – including 65 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of Independents, 88 percent of Democrats, and 56 percent of Tea Party members -- agree with the following statement: “The U.S. needs to be a clean energy technology leader and it should invest in the research and domestic manufacturing of wind, solar and energy efficiency technologies.”

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    •Most Americans want continued movement away from fossil fuels. About three in four Americans (76 percent) – including 62 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of Independents, 90 percent of Democrats and half of Tea Party supporters – agree strongly or somewhat with the following statement: “Smarter energy choices are the key to creating a future that is healthy and safe because fossil fuels create toxic wastes that are a threat to our health and safety.”

    •Most Americans would favor a moratorium on coal-fired power plants. Nearly two thirds of Americans (65 percent) – including 55 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of Independents, 72 percent of Democrats, and about half (49 percent) of Tea Party backers -- would support a phase-out of coal fired power plants in the United States” if “increased energy efficiency and off the shelf renewable technologies such as wind and solar could meet our energy demands.”

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    •Concerns about water are present in America on a strongly bipartisan basis. More than three in four Americans (78 percent) – including 68 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Independents, 85 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Tea Party backers -- agree with the following statement: “Water shortages and clean drinking water are real concerns. America should put the emphasis on first developing new energy sources that require the least water and cause minimal water pollution.”

    •Few Americans dismiss a connection between extreme weather events and climate change. Fewer than one in five Americans (17 percent) think that “climate change is not a factor” in “at least 10 weather related disasters caused by so called extreme weather – (that) have occurred so far in 2011 involving $1 billion or more each in damages – now totaling about $45 billion.” Fewer than half (45 percent) of Tea Party members fall into the climate change denial camp on this question.

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    Other key survey findings include the following:

    Nearly three in five (58 percent) of Americans are now aware of “the natural gas drilling process sometimes referred to as ‘fracking.’”

    About four in five Americans (79 percent) – including 66 percent of Republicans, 78 percent of Independents, 91 percent of Democrats, and 55 percent of Tea Party supporters -- say they are very or somewhat concerned “about this issue (fracking) as it relates to water quality.”

    Roughly three out of four Americans (74 percent) – including 68 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Independents, 81 percent of Democrats, and 58 percent of Tea Party backers – agree with the following statement: “The cost of electricity paid by consumers is only part of the price of energy. We have to look at the whole picture -- including water quality, environmental damages and human health problems -- when we talk about what a particular source of energy costs America.”

    1 Comments:

    At 7:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

    An interesting report indeed.

    For anyone who wishes to learn more about sustainability and energy issues I strongly suggest you check out this upcoming Agrion Energy Conference. The event will touch upon of variety of subjects involved in energy security and renewables with key figures from the government and large businesses discussing these issues.

    Here is the link: http://www.agrion.org/sessions/agrion-ny-Residential_Demand_Response_and_Enabling_Technologies_.htm

     

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